Garbage Collection in Thailand

garbagecollection

People back in the UK keep asking me how much money I have to pay monthly for my house for things like utility bills and council tax. Well,  water, electricity and telephone bills come every month. Water and telephone is hardly anything and the price stays the same every month. It doesn’t seem to matter how much water I use, it is always 143 Baht. For the telephone, I only pay about 100 Baht or so rental a month. All phone calls I make are done on my cell phone. Electricity is really the only one I have to keep an eye on as it can be expensive. However, I have now managed to get this down from 4,000+ Baht a month to an average of 1,100 Baht.

I live down a small cul-de-sac. We have street lighting but I have never been asked to pay any form of council tax for this or any other local services like fire, police, ambulance etc. I have no idea how they pay for these things. Certainly doesn’t come from householders. The only other miscellaneous bill I have is for garbage collection. Someone came around to collect this from me this afternoon. As you can see from the receipt above, it was 30 Baht for the month of September. I think this is the first time that I have paid it in five years and probably only the third time since I bought this house. It always feels like a scam when they come around but the receipt looks real enough. What I never understand is why they don’t ask for back-pay on the months that they didn’t catch anyone at home.

What’s your experience with the garbage collectors?

4 thoughts on “Garbage Collection in Thailand

  • September 18, 2013 at 8:13 am
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    My electricity bill when I lived alone but in a large three-bedroomed house(more than 2 years ago)was about B450 every month for 18 months. I didn’t have air-con which is what really eats it up.
    Water is inexpensive (currently)at the same amount for me (B450 per month) but that is for a beauty salon where water is being used in huge quantities.
    When I lived in Mae Rim 25kms north of Chiang Mai somebody from the village collected every week and charged me b200 per month (a real rip-off but who cares compared with UK??
    I have been living in a small town in Khon Kaen Province for more than two years and all my rubbish (and I mean, everything) is collected every day and I am charged B10 per month and I get an official receipt, just like the one above. We run a business here, right in the middle of the town and there are no local taxes of any kind.
    I lived in Udon Thani for a few months. There they have an annual charge of B200 for garbage collection, once a week but with an official garbage truck. They will only take what is in proper garbage binbags. Chris

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  • September 16, 2013 at 10:45 am
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    Here in the upcountry village the water bill is handwritten and nver sent by post. Don’t know about garbage collection.
    Telephone and electric is a completele different matter, as they ar not services from the municipality (Thesaban).
    To find out what it is really about, one would have to read the handwritten script.

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  • September 16, 2013 at 10:42 am
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    Yes the bill looks authentic.
    Its from the Samut Prakan municipality and the stamp looks good too.
    To decipher the handwritten script though is too much for me.

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  • September 14, 2013 at 8:06 pm
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    I think it was a scam, why the first time in 5 years? and why not send it through the PO like the phone and electric co do?

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